title: How close are we in utilizing functional neuroimaging in routine clinical diagnosis of neuropathic pain?
abstract: As with many disorders affecting the central nervous system, treatment of chronic pain is fraught with difficulties related to specific diagnosis and measures of treatment efficacy. Given the recent advances that brain-imaging techniques have contributed to our understanding of how chronic pain affects multiple aspects of brain function (including sensory, emotional, cognitive, and modulatory), opportunities to use these approaches in the clinic are clearly a focus of research laboratories around the world. The routine application of brain imaging as a clinical marker of disease state or therapeutic (drug) efficacy would significantly enhance the clinical process by providing objective measures for clinicians and patients.
authors.affiliation: Center for Pain and the Brain, c/o Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA 02478, USA. dborsook@partners.org
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borsook
authors.forename: Lino
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Becerra
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care